"Sir," said Libor, "I am only telling you what other people say——" and then, as Master Peter made a gesture of impatience, he went on, "Kuthen, King of the Kunok, has sent an embassy to his Majesty asking for a settlement for his people——"
"Ah! that's something," interrupted Peter, "and I hope his Majesty sent them to the right-about at once?"
"His Majesty received the ambassadors with particular favour, and in view of the danger which threatens us, declared himself ready to welcome such an heroic people."
"Danger! don't let me hear that word again, clerk!"
"It is not my word," protested Libor, with an appealing glance at Dora, intended to call attention to Master Peter's injustice.
"It's a bad word, whosesoever it is," insisted Peter. "Well, what more? are we to be saddled with this horde of pagans then?"
"Pagans no longer! at least they won't be when they come to settle. They are all going to be baptized, the King and his family and all his people. The ambassadors promised and were baptized themselves before they went back."
"What!" cried Father Roger, his face lighting up, "forty thousand families converted to the faith! Why, it is divine, and the King is almost an Apostle!"
The good Father quite forgot all further fear of danger from the Kunok, and from this moment took their part. He could see nothing but good in this large accession of numbers to the Church.
"New Christians!" said Peter, shaking his head doubtfully, as he saw the impression made upon Roger. "Are such people Christians just because the holy water has been poured upon their faces? They are far enough from Christianity to my mind. Who can trust such folk? And then, to admit them without consulting the nation, by a word of command—I don't like the whole thing, and so far as the country is concerned, I see no manner of use in it."